Thursday, April 10, 2008

test essay

Which is more important for leadership, wisdom or intelligence?

Do you want to be a good leader? Which do you need more, wisdom or intelligence? The answer is wisdom! Wisdom is a more important prerequisite for people in leadership, because it can help people control their emotion well and deal with people better.

People with wisdom can control their emotion better than a person with only intelligence. Intelligence is really necessary for a person in leadership. But sometimes intelligent people may not control their emotion well. They may be angry about some small mistake their members make or too frustrate about failure. These emotional reactions are not good for people in leadership to keep their teams moving forward. In contrast, people with wisdom are better at controlling their emotion. Wisdom is more or less gained from one’s previous life experience. With such experience, people can know how to show their emotion. They will neither be too happy about success nor too sad about failure. This performance of a leader can influence his or her followers to act less subjectively, and help the team grow. To be a good leader, controlling or regulating one’s emotion is important, so in this aspect wisdom is more important than intelligence.

In another aspect, people with wisdom can deal with people better than people with only intelligence. Intelligent people sometimes think that they are really smart and better than others, so they may not respect their followers. The knowledge they get from books cannot help them deal with people. If the leader cannot deal with his followers well, definitely, he or she cannot lead his or her team well. In contrast, wisdom can help people interact with others well. Wisdom is more or less gained from people’s experience. With their previous experience, they know the way to deal with people. They will first respect every follower they have, and they know how to motivate these people to make their team better. To be a good leader the ability to interact with people is very important. Thus, wisdom is more important than intelligence in this way.

In conclusion, to be a good leader, intelligence is necessary. Rather than being smart, the ability to control one’s emotion and deal with people is more important in human society. As a consequence, wisdom is more important for a person in leadership.

2 comments:

Sweetie said...

Good essay after all! All the best for your exam!

See Kee said...

I agree with you that wisdom is more important than intelligence for a leader, especially a good leader. Knowledge from books can make a person very intelligent but it does not teach you how to react to real-life situations. However, wisdom allows a person to handle interpersonal relationships well as he/she can control his/her emotions well. Therefore, a leader with wisdom can lead his/her people better. =)